Cosmic Dust
by Inquisitor Azreal
Summary: TITLE CHANGE. When a Cosmic Anomoly, only known as a warp bubble, rips a hole in the very fabric of the universe depositing a hyper advance starship into the debris belt. The Archangel sends a team onboard to investigate. Onboard a Starfighter, a corpse and a single man. This one man will change the ongoing war and leave nothing the same. Slight EVE Online/Dust 514 Xover
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Warning: A basic understanding of the EVE Universe will make this fic alot easier to understand but it is not required as anything mentioned will be explained or can be searched up for picture references. Also this fic contains course language and graphic violence.

**=][=**

_You lived and died alone, especially in fighters. Fighters. Somehow, despite everything, that word had not become sterile. You slipped into the hollow cockpit and strapped and plugged yourself into the machine. The canopy ground shut and sealed you off. Your oxygen, your very breath, you carried into the chilled vacuum, in a steel bottle._

**=][=**

There he sat, in the quiet stillness of his own cockpit. Through his fighter he could feel the super carrier slight vibrations as they warped to location. He knew it would be a good while yet until they reached they're destination, even thought the ship was going several AU a second it took a while to warp between star systems. That's what they had jump gates for to cross the cosmos in a blink of an eye yet, rather unfortunately, the super carrier he and his craft currently resided on was to large a vessel to utilize them. And now he just sat preparing himself for the coming engagement.

These were the moments that defined his life. His century long life. He wasn't a capsuleer who would pilot the greatest of starships singlehandedly but he was the next best thing, an immortal, the infantry equivalent of a capsuleer. Yet even after becoming an immortal he dreamed of flying so enrolled in flight engineering and became his corporations most successful dropship pilot, he would fly two or three sorties non-stop. His missions varied from hot dropping squads into an enemy controlled facility or retrieving stranded capsuleers who had crash landed on desolate planets. But after half a century that had become dull and monotonous, as if he was just going through the motions. So he looked to the stars.

He got into contact with one of his corporations capsuleers who's ass he had saved a few times and asked for a favor. A week later he was transferred and given his very own fighter, now it was originally a bog standard Templar-class amarrian fighter no different from anything the normals piloted but he was an immortal he had countless years of experience stored in his genetically enhanced brain. He crafted it into a work of art, fine tuning the calibrations and adding a surprisingly expensive fit on the craft. It was easily worth a frigate with the amount of modules installed into the ship, armour hardeners and repairers, capacitor rechargers, speed rigs and upgraded weapons made his craft superior to almost any it's size in the region. How long it had been in service was a testament to that, almost sixty years. It was the Retribution. And it was the embodiment of his skill.

As the the gentle vibrations of the warp engines started to slow he slipped on his pilots helmet, the Heads Up Display coming to life showing the ships shield, armour and structure integrity, his capacitor and his weapon status'. He quickly opened a comm-link to the other four pilots who made up his wing, they were all normals or people who had no enhancements or implants. "Alright as soon as we drop out of warp we are leaving this hanger, outside is an enemy fleet consisting of ships all sizes from frigates to an enemy Titan. Remember your rules of engagement, all non friendlies will be marked in red but keep your fire focused on the small stuff. Drones and enemy fighters are priority target we will be keeping them busy while the fighter bombers have a chance to hit frigates destroyers and cruisers. If you get split from the formation find a wingman and stick with him. Are we clear?"

Four affirmatives lights blinked on in the left side of my HUD. He wasn't surprised by the lack of a vocal reply, he knew he was an outsider to the normal pilots because he showed the capsuleers that immortals were more efficient than normals and they feared being replaced.

The hanger was plunged into an eerie red-light, that was their cue. He took off quickly pushing his craft to maximum velocity, a staggering 4000m/s, he quickly arced of from his formation. He would just be slowed down by the unimproved ships and he could cause more havoc alone, his wing could look after them selves. He was about a hundred klicks from the battle but the distance was closing fast so he quickly scanned it over to find where he was most needed. He saw an enemy drone squadron harassing a Prophecy frigate, quickly doing calculations he lined up a shot that was leading one of the drones and fired a volley, the multifrequency lasers melted through the armour and contacted the drones power supply causing a small explosion which he tore his way past just a second after most of the debris had cleared and flew off to find a new target. He opened his NeoCom as his latest burst lanced it's way into a Minmatar drone bay causing multiple hull breaches and destroying and drones it had stored there.

Glancing down at the NeoCom that had opened on his HUD there was a priority message to the entire fleet. 'Dammit! All the gaps we are making are being closed to fast! But we've located the enemy Fleet commander it's a legion just inside warp range and just outside of weapon range! Take it down of you can!'

_A Legion?_ Quickly he pulled up a schematic for the ship and scanned it over. _A Strategic Cruiser, multiple configurations, this one was equipped with a Drone Synthesis Projector which meant it was almost defenseless up close, Interesting it had a hanger bay that could be landed in but it seemed it never was considered to be a threat because normals never dared to fly into the ship. Well I'm no normal and I've always wanted to run a capsuleer through._

He took off weaving as he went even though no one was firing at him all it took was one person to notice what he was doing and he would be space in a heart beat. And at his current velocity there was an entire minute that he would be vulnerable with out support and nothing to duck behind if he was locked. He could feel the sweat start to bead off his forehead and his hands tightened on the joysticks. His vision tunneled and he took in every detail of the nearing Legion, the graceful curves and gold plated armour that formed the basis of Amarr engineering, the slowly rotating pair of turrets...

"Fuck!" he yelled rolling just as two green beams lanced through space missing by such a small margin that the shield still flared. The ass hole had put point defense turrets on his ship, small fighter sized weapons that pumped out a metal ingot the size of an outstretched arm through space at near three times the speed of sound, ever half a second and these ones were made out of depleted uranium. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" hey cursed as more sabots flew his way and he was forced to push his machine to the very edge over loading all of his propulsion systems to squeeze every ounce of speed that he could. He didn't even bother trying to fire back he knew he was going to fast to accurately aim and even if he did land a hit the shield would protect the turrets.

The distance was so infintisamly small only two thousand meters out, half a second. Now your probably thinking half a second that's not a long time at all, but when your dealing with an angry capsuleer who had personally taken over the controls of one of the turrets half a second was a death sentence.

The sabot crashed into his left wing blowing it from the rest of the ship and with it one of the three engines. His speed decrease dramatically but he managed to hold it together just long enough to enter the hanger and make a 'landing'. He quickly grabbed his service weapon, a burst fire scrambler pistol that fired laser induced plasma fuel by an energy cell, and his Nova blade, a custom job which blade was wreathed in plasma and the metal body was shaped like an ancient weapon called a Kurki. He jumped out of the cockpit blade in his right hand pistol in the left and looked at his pride and joy and by just looking at it he knew it would never fly again. It was disheartening, the ship had guided him through more skirmishes and fleet ops over the years than he could count. He sighed audibly and started toward the bridge of the ship.

As entered one of the hall ways a loud voice echoed through ship. "Dammit! I've been boarded, Helen I need you to initiate Operation Rapture we can't let them into the system the shipyard is wide open. Lawrence your acting fleet commander I'm going to deal with this asshole who thinks he can run around my ship!" He grinned to himself the idiot was broadcasting his fleets communication channel on the ships PA system, the capsuleer probably didn't realize that his announcement had given his foe a great advantage, a warning.

He advanced slowly glancing down at his motion tracker every so often and it was completely empty. That was the best part about boarding capsuleer ships, no matter how big or small the ship only had a single occupant that guided it through space. He was nearing the bridge or so the schematic he was following said he was, suddenly his motion tracker blipped. The bastard was behind him! He whirled around just in time to see a capsuleer in civilian clothes rugby tackle him. Landing on his back the air in his lung quickly vacated his body as the capsuleer slugged him across the face snapping his head to the side, he thanked God he had his helmet on otherwise his jaw would have easily been broken. Regaining his senses he lashed out with his kirki, the plasma shroud on the edge of the blade made the cutting edge just over two atoms thick, because of that sharpness the blade went straight through the capsuleers arm and only stopped half way in his chest because the was no room to carry through. Standing up he looked down at his bleeding opponent, his left arm dangled from barely a centimeter of flesh and red steam was floating up from his exposed rib cage as blood flash evaporated when it came into contact with the super heated plasma that made the blade so deadly. Leaning down a wrenched the blade from it's organic sheath and looked down at the still alive capsuleer. "This is for my ship asshole." and with that he swung the blade with such force that when it contacted his head it shattered and the blade sunk two inches into the steel floor.

Looking up he saw a large door that opened to reveal the bridge. In front of him stood a floor to ceiling reinforced window, looking out side he could barely make out the flashes of light that signal the fleet battle was still ongoing. The only ship he could make out was one of the titans, it was easily the size of a space station, and in front of it a large ball of golden light seemed to be condensing. He watched in awe as the ball shot forth a golden ray of pure energy, it was massive like holy crap the beam is half a kilometer in diameter massive and it impacted the jump gate. The jump gate that just happened to be sitting not even one kilometer from him. He knew he wouldn't make it out of this alive. When the gate overloaded and exploded he and the legion he was on world simply cease to exist, not even ashes would be left, it be like he and the ship never existed. So he did the thing that any sane person would do when they realized they stood on deaths doorstep.

He smiled.

He kept smiling as the shield on the gate gave way.

He started to laugh as the armour literally melted off the frame work.

His smile faltered when the gate went critical, it didn't explode in with the immolating power of seven suns, no it started to collapse in on itself, pieces disappeared only to be replaced by a dark purple energy that radiated out wards.

His faltered smile was replaced with a frown as the entire gate was replace with a warping and swirling mass of dark purple and black energy.

The PA system came to life with shrieks of terror "MY GOD! ITS A WARP BUBBLE!" A warp bubble, the one known and proven method to kill capsuleers. Permenently. No clone, no chance of survival. No one came back after entering a warp bubble, it was deaths bouncy ball.

The sounds of anguish and pleading washed over the PA. Many of the pilots, capsuleers and normals were weeping.

His smile returned as he rode out his last voyage listening to the symphony of despair. Right into the heart of the warp.

**=][=**

Oh? What's this? This is something new. This is my first foray into the world of Gundam Seed and infact my first into the entire anime genre. About a week ago I started to watch Gundam Seed on a recommendation from one of my friends. I went into it with preconceived ideas of how it was going to be, over exaggerated, that it would contain the crappy Pokemon-esc animations where the graphics completely change and would suck in general. What I found was an engaging and deep story of a war that changed the live of a group of teenagers, it's wasn't light hearted but grim and realistic. It's realism and grim atmosphere comprise me to keep watching and eventually see what type of fanfiction presence it held. And damn. Was I ever disappointed. Nothing against you guys but there tone of stories that are just remake and rehashes of other peoples ideas and even more that don't capture the gritty realism that made me actually watch the show. Once again not bashing just not what I hoped for. So here I am writing for this universe trying to bring a spark of originality to it. And I say I bring a spark is because when I sorted all the stories by reviews three of them were athran hire cagalli as a secretary ON THE FIST PAGE! There is something wrong with that.

Hopefully this is received well and my time was well spent.

Inquisitor Azreal.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Quick note please forgive any inconsistencies I'm doing most of this from memory and I started weighting this about two hours after I posted the first part and my hot mail had a full page of favorites and followers. Im shocked and to the one reviews as of now, dont worry i started my career of writing in some of the smallest communities, star fox, and the harshest, halo, I don't worry bout reviews to much as long as I get a few that are longer than 'good chapter' or 'good work' those drive me INSANE. Btw This starts at the end of episode 7 "Scars of space"

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The first rule of all space combat is to see the opponent first. Like the hunter who stalks his prey and maneuvers himself unnoticed into the most favourable position for the kill, the fighter in the opening of a dogfight must detect the opponent as early as possible in order to attain a superior position for the attack.

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Jackie Tonomura was relaxing at his station, in front of him the long range scanner was passively scanning for ZAFT forces. he grabbed the water bottle, that for the first time in a week was full to the brim, and took a long swig relishing the feel of the ice cold water. After a week and a half of heavy rationing you really started to enjoy the most simplistic things like water and a full meal. He tried to keep his mind off where they had gotten the water from, it wasn't a pleasant thought. As he drank he quickly glanced down at the scanner, the four retrieval shuttles were still being picked up going to and from the ship, a fifth signal was coming from the Strike who was watching over the whole process like a bodyguard, a giant mechanical bodyguard. He leaned back in his seat when a sixth signal appeared but just as quickly disappeared.

"What the?" me muttered to him self leaning closer to the console and starting to fiddle with the sensor controls. There is was again! It was like a phantom signal but it wasn't, it would have been a similar signature to one of the already detected ships and he had set the machine to filter those ones out. This was much larger almost as large as the Archangel herself and it kept switching locations the first time it was about seven kilometers of the port side but when it reappeared it was literally right behind the Archangel, so close that you would have been able to step from one ship to the other and not have to stretch out your stride. He slipped on his headset and waited for it to reappear, to try and pick up any transmissions coming off the ghost signal. He didn't have to wait long. Later in life when he was asked to describe the sound his face went took on a haunted and terrified look and whisper "You don't ever, ever want to know."

The sound that assaulted his ears was soul rending, the screams of hundreds all crying out at once in anguish and fear and a deep malevolent laughter seemed to echo inside his head. He himself roared in agony, jumping back he threw his headset off and clutched his ears but he could still hear it! "Damn it why can I still hear it! Make it stop!" he wailed.

Breaking out of her slightly stunned state Badgiruel floated over to his side. "Petty officer Tonomura! What's wrong!"

"The screams! I can still here them!" he whispered.

"What screams?" That's when she noticed his hands, or more specifically what covered them. Blood. His blood. What ever he heard had caused his ears to bleed and reduce him to a quivering mass. "Get a medical team!" she ordered to no one in particular more worried about the man in front of her, his anguished cries of pain had yet to cease and many of the volunteers, hell the entire crew looked shaken. Lieutenant Mu La Flaga pushed his way to the front of the crowd and pulled the Petty Officer up and delivered a swift punch to the head with just enough force to knock him unconscious.

"Lieutenant! What are you doing!" Captain Merrue Ramius, a woman of average height with shoulder length brown hair and eyes of a similar colour, yelled as she sent a death glare at the man.

"He was terrifying everyone. Beside you heard his screams I don't even want to know how much pain he was in. It was the right thing to do." the blond haired blue eyed man said with shrug as medics burst onto the bridge and quickly secured the unconscious man and floated him out the door.

"Umm, Captain I think your going to want to see this." said as he looked at Jackies terminal. On it was a sixth and seventh signature, a recon GINN and a starship, sitting half a klick in front of them. Spinning around they stood in awe of the machine in front of them, it had obviously been in battle as large portions of the hull had been ripped open and blackened, but even in it's damaged state it was a work of are flowing golden lines surrounded by elegantly carved pieces of a bronze colored material. It wasn't an earth forces vessel but it sure as hell wasn't ZAFT.

But the GINN had boarded it anyway.

The captain spoke without turning "Alert the Strike, Lieutenant prepare a squad of men, I want to find out what's on that ship before that ZAFT pilot can touch anything."

**=][=**

The first thing that he noticed when consciousness found him was how dark it was, as if light didn't exist. Maybe if you open your eyes dumb ass. Ughh it's still dark. His vision restored he noticed was he was face first on the cold steel deck. "Dammit what the fuck happened." something about a space battle... And a... Wormhole? No a warp gate? No not that either...

Suddenly his memory kicked in and the events prior flooded his brain. The fleet op, the loss of his fighter, the death of the capsuleer responsible and the Warp bubble. How am I still alive? Shaking his head he realized he still hadn't stood back up, doing so he opened his NeoCom and checked his alliance frequencies. Nothing? How about all channels? He did a quick scan and there were no known signals being detected infact his neural uplink couldn't pinpoint his location in New Eden and it was scanning wildly. A sense of foreboding started to form in the bottom of his gut. He quickly started a scan trying to locate his CRU putting all his suits power temporarily into the scanner. When the results came back he started to feel the effects of an emotion he hadn't felt for years.

Panic. Sheer and utter panic.

He fell back against a wall "Nononono. This isn't happening, what am I going to do. There's no registered CRU." before his panic could get out of hand anymore the century of combat experience asserted control over his mind and gave the pilots body a strict set of instructions. _1. Find the armoury, you don't know were you are and you need to be ready. 2. Find food and water, basic necessities. 3. Get out of dodge._

Pushing himself off the wall he grabbed his fallen weapons and started to walk out of the bridge, past the infamous capsule that allowed for immortality. Walking down the halls the lack of crew that benefitted him earlier was now starting to play havoc on his nerves, it was like walking through a ghost town, knowing your the only person for miles but still feeling a pair of eyes boring into your back. All the empty halls and rooms of the ship could easily surpass a few square kilometers but it was always a rule of thumb to keep the armoury near or around the bridge that way if a capsuleer crashed on a planet he or she wouldn't be too defenseless. It was just a matter of finding it. Although it seemed lady luck was on the pilots side. As he opened a door he stopped his jaw dropping in front of him stood racks upon racks of weapons but that wasn't what grabbed his attention. It was the grey plated rectangular structure in front of him, a mobile CRU, the key to his survival. But priorities first he grabbed a duffle bag and started to pack it, an assault Smg, a few locust grenades, a repair gun, two boxes of fusion cells, spare clips for the Smg, some nanohives and even a swarm launcher, the only heavy weapon he was really trained for. _Oh wait, that's pretty shiny._ Grabbing it he threw it into the bag.

"Now onto the main show." he strode over to the CRU, carefully placing his gear on the floor beside him he opened up a terminal on the machine. The hacking process would take a while he would have to recalibrate the sensors, change the code to accept transmissions from his uplink, rewire a large part of the OS and... "Oh my lord, what do we have here?"

**=][=**

Sensena and Jeremy slowly advanced through the alien vessel. Outside one of the hangers sat their open GINN if they ever needed to quickly exfiltrate. But it didn't look like it would come to that because the gilded hallways, with statues of winged angelic beings hands raised above their heads flanked each door way, were eerily empty. Which set both of them on edge. As if she was able to read minds Sensena spoke in a comforting tone "I don't like this anymore than you Jeremy, but can you imagine what could be on this thing?"

"I know but this is to creepy, I mean for a ship this size where are all the crew? I'd be more comfortable if the corpses were here." He clutched his rifle tighter and continued to edge along the hallway in silence until one thing started to really bother him "And what's with the statues it feels like they're staring at me."

"Oh your just imagining things now." the female pilot said with a chuckle until a red droplet slowly impacted the visor in front of her face causing her to flinch. Raising her hand she whipped it of and looked down at her glove. "Blood..."

"Hmm? What was that?" he looked over and saw the red stain of her visor and hand. He blinked and turned off the rifles safety. "Come on we gotta be close."

They floated along the hall for a short while before coming upon a dead body. A mutilated corpse was a better description, it's arm was dangling from a scrap of flesh and it's organs had come out of a large rent in the chest and floated out in the open for all to see. It's head was sliced open and brain matter floated around the body and in the literal WALL of blood. Beside him he heard Sensena gasp and he himself felt bile rise up in his throat.

He saw a light coming from a door way further down the hall but the problem was it was on the other side of the corpse wall. "Hey we have to keep moving."

Sensena gulped audibly "Can we find another way around? Please Jer." she pleaded not wanting to go anywhere near the blood,

"We can't to large a chance for detection we have to go through." before she had a chance to protest he threw himself through the blood. Let's just say it was unnerving. "See? Not so bad now come on."

Taking a deep breath she pushed her self forward before she had a chance to think about what she was doing. She felt bile build up in the back of her throat as she past through the floating red liquid but held it down by force of will alone. Shaking her head to clear some of the blood from her visor she floated behind Jeremy, light spilling out of the door in front of him. He raised his hand and put up three fingers, slowly lowering them.

Three...

Two...

One...

**=][=**

Lieutenant Mu La Flaga gulped as the recovery vehicle approached the unknown vessel. He was nervous and even a little scared, even with four marines watching his back and the Strike flying next to them, the ship in front of them all was like nothing he had ever seen almost alien. He steeled himself, he couldn't let those emotions be telegraphed to his squad it would shake their moral to see the Hawk of Endymion in such a state. In his hands was a small compact Submachine Gun, the weight gave him a sense of security. _Who am I kidding i haven't used a firearm in almost a year._ And it was true, he had no need for it as a space superiority pilot. He just hoped that he could recover whatever talent he had quickly.

The large hanger bay started to fill his view and soon overwhelmed it, as he past through he noticed an odd sensation flow down his spine, almost as if an electrical current past through his body without shocking him. He quickly dismissed it when he noticed what dominated the hanger, the GINN. He was about to raise his weapon when he saw the hatch was open and no one was inside. As they lowered to the deck the small machine there registered in his brain, it was wrecked that much was obvious as the entire left side was missing, black scorch marks trailed from the wreckage as if it had slid across the deck, but it was the same gold material that matched the rest of the ship. He was starting to move closer when he heard a very distinct sound.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK

The sound of full auto gunfire.

Nodding to his squad he quickly triggered him com unit. "Hey kid?"

"Hey, what's up." Kiras voice replied.

"It looks like the ZAFT troopers went deeper into the ship and that they found something we're hearing gunfire. We're going deeper in but there's a GINN in here if you want to transport it over to the archangel."

"Ya sure, I can do that. Be careful."

One of his marines, a private, looked at him funny before asking. "Why is he grabbing the mobile suit, do we have another pilot?"

"No but it will keep his mind busy and stop him from feeling useless if we get in a firefight. Now let's hurry." Mu ordered starting to propel himself down the corridor toward the sound of gunfire, his marines quickly following. Looking at the four men in front of him Mu gained a new sense of respect, they expertly maneuvered in the zero gee environment and covered all the angles while still moving rapidly. The made great time passing a dead body in civilian attire, but what they saw when the arrived horrified them. A figure in a red ZAFT flight suit came flying out of an open door way, slamming into the wall with bone crushing force. Before they could even react a blade twirled out of the same door, blue whisps of power trailing it's spin, impaling the ZAFT pilot in the sternum, pinning him against the wall. Slowly turning his head to face the earth alliance marines, eyes wide in shock he mouthed one word. Run.

To their credit only one of the marines, the private from earlier, took the coordinators advice. Not that the lieutenant could blame him, if something could demolish an armed coordinator it had to be tough. The four of them edged to the doorway and as one entered, just in time to see a figure in white and black armour with an orange body suit point a pistol at a kneeling ZAFT pilot and execute her. The figure quickly whirled around and aimed the pistol at them, but it must have twisted something because it flinched and brought it free hand to it's side. When it came away it was covered in blood. Without further warning it collapsed. Two of his men threw themselves through the air, one snatched the pistol the other grabbed the figure. Mu quickly opened a channel to the Archangel. "Archangel, this is Lieutenant La Flaga we have made contact with two ZAFT soldiers both KIA and one unknown alien thing but doesn't seem like there's anyone else aboard. There's alot of gear in this room too what do you want us to do with it?"

"Lieutenant, did you say alien?" Captain Ramius asked incredulously.

"Maybe, it bleeds red but I've never seen anything like this before, this tech is so advanced there's holographic displays everywhere."

A loud sigh came over the com link before Merrue responded "Grab as much as you can, bring the unknown contact too we'll have a medical team on standby.."

"Alright you heard the lady, grab the shiniest toys you can and ship them off to the Archangel I want this big one the most and someone go prep the recovery vehicle I want to take that fight that's resting in the hanger."

**=][= Transmission Disconnected =][=**

Yay! Chapter 2 like a boss. For any of you who are playing the dust 514 beta the armour is a solstice scout drop suit. For those of you who don't... The NDA says you can no know. But maybe by next chapter I'll have found a loophole to exploit. But any way yaaaa fun times ahead for the archangel and crew. Lots of graphic violence and destruction ahead and logical changes to the episodes so that it has some amount of realism. BTW i need a Beta reader.


	3. Chapter 3

**Gs Chapter 2**

Aww why you no review? Just because I can handle it doesn't mean it's rude or it doesn't hurt my feelings. Jokes jokes. But seriously people I just went over EVERY fix in this category and do you want to know what I found? Stagnation. I know I'm ranting but WTF writers? Has your creativity been ripped away from you or do you enjoy posting rehashes of the same idea and never changing 'Canon' pairings. And what makes you enjoy HIGHSCHOOL STORIES! God damn I get enough of high school fics and just want some explosions and creativity. I is get sad when views drop in half :(

**=][=**

_I gained in experience with every plane shot down, and now was able to fire in a calm, deliberate manner. Each attack was made in a precise manner. Distance and deflection were carefully judged before firing. This is not something that comes by accident; only by experience can a pilot overcome feelings of panic. A thousand missions could be flown and be of no use if the pilot has not exchanged fire with the enemy._

**=][=**

Kira had just gotten the captured recon GINN into one of the hanger racks and was exiting the machine when two members of the Archangels medical crew burst into the bay and started to prepare their equipment. Oh no, someone on the boarding team is hurt. The thought entered his mind unbidden and he kicked against e GINNs chassis propelling him toward the team. Landing in a somewhat graceful manner started to fire off questions so quickly it came out as a jumbled mess. "Whathappened?Who'shurt?Howbadly?"

One of the medics just stared, trying to comprehend the noise that had just passed through his ears before shaking his head and speaking calmly while still setting things up. "Don't worry it's none of our guys, it's just one of the crew who was aboard the ship probably got shot during the fire fight. Just go grab some food and head to bed, you look exhausted."

"I will, but I want to wait for Mr. La Flaga to get back." Kira replied while floating, his momentum from the jump causing him to list lazily to the left.

"Suit yourself kid but I told you they're fine. Speak of the devil, here they come now. If you want to help we're pretty short handed, so grab that stretcher." He said while kicking off toward the recovery vehicle. Grabbing the hard plastic board he propelled himself after the medic and grabbed onto Recovery 1 when it neared. As he got close he noticed it's unusual bulk, a large grey rectangular box was loaded underneath and quite a few duffel bags were tied to the deck and behind it a mobile armour sized spacecraft was being towed. Onboard the marines in their blue flight suits started to pull a humanoid figure out of the pressurized cabin. Kira refrained from using the term human just because of the bodysuit it was wearing, hard black and white ceramic plates covered an orange body suit that looked almost like an extra set of muscles and the helmet threw him off the most, it was large and bulbous giving off a rather insect like feel. The last thing he noticed was a large red stain over the figures left side and a hole between a set of plates.

The other medic, a female with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair and the fair complexion typical of spacers, started to bark orders. "Hey kid get over here! Alright place the stretcher next to him, good now you see the switch on your side? Hit it, it'll activate a small gravity generator. Great job now come over here and place both your hands against the wound, nice and tight." Kira tried to keep up with her rapid instructions and he thought he did pretty well, that was until they started to move, he quickly found out that trying to keep up with rushing medics while maintaining pressure on a wound was hard, and doing it while in zero gee was near impossible.

Kira tuned out what the medics where saying and put all his concentration into keeping steady, which was becoming increasingly difficult as blood continued coat his hands. He lost track of where they were going, just allowing the medics to guide him focusing entirely on the injured figure below him, a focus that was only broken when a hand started waving in front of his face.

"Hey, kid? You there?" the female medic asked.

Kira shook his head to clear it before replying "Huh? Oh ya, I'm alright."

She smile showing her perfect white teeth "Good you zoned out for a second, you can let go now we have to get him into surgery. You did good kid, probably saved his life." she quickly ducked into the med bay and sealed the door leaving Kira out in the hall way.

It took him a moment to realize he was alone and a few more to realize that his hands and forearms where covered in blood. Shaking his head he resolved to obtain a new flight suit. _I really doubt these stains will come out._

**=][=**

_**Pain...**_

That was the first sensation that returned to him.

It was a sharp pain, residing in the left side of his abdomen just below his rib cage. Nothing he couldn't handle.

But when he opened his eyes he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

_Holy fucking shit! The light! It burns! I'm blind! I'm meeeeelting!_

He threw his hands in front of his face, he was only partially successful. Pain erupted in his right hand as metal dug into his wrist, the pain distracting him just enough to make him forget to stop his other hand. Which proceeded to smack him in the face.

_Abuse! Abuse I say!_

Finally after shaking his head a few times his mind cleared enough for him to take in his surroundings. He was in a small room with two bunks to his right and maybe one above. The beds were standard militia quality which meant that an empire or fledgling corporation picked him up. He was also cuffed to the frame meaning he couldn't move much. And he was naked.

_Great._

Then a small tidbit of information entered his mind and stopped all rational thought.

_I'm alive..._

_I'm alive, I survived a warp bubble..._

He couldn't help it, he started laughing. Not a small chuckle but full blown laughter, because for thousands of years warp bubbles were thought of as a death sentence and here he was, living proof that scientists were fucking retards.

Slowly his laugh died down and he accessed his NeoCom, the superimposed image appearing in his view. Opening a remote hacking software he tasked it with accessing the local network and gaining all the information that the simple AI registered as important. Setting it to run in the background he opened up a second program, a scanning software. It wasn't that powerful and only had a range of about five meters but of course, that was due to the lack of his suit and all of it's fancy gadgets.

Running a quick scan he picked up two biosigns on the other side of the door. They were human and unarmed but it still put him on guard. He settled into a position where he became hard to notice and waited.

**=][=**

"But Miriallia, I told you the guy is unconscious he only got out of surgery an hour ago. There's nothing to see. Besides he needs his rest he was shot, let's just go back." Kira pleaded with his friend for the fourth time.

Miriallia, a fellow student from Kira's college, just flicked the air in his direction in a dismissive way "Exactly, this guy took down down two coordinators and was prepared to take on our boarding team before passing out. I want to see what he looks like while he's out."

"But-" Before the poor pilot got a chance to say anything Miriallia open the door and strode into the room before jumping back in surprise when she notice, after a few seconds, the fully conscience and naked man in front of her. She quickly looked down and ran out of the room.

"Okay you go first! Give him clothes."

With a smirk on his face he entered the room with a bag hanging from his shoulder. Unfazed by his nakedness Kira handed the bag to the man and said "Here we found these in the cockpit of the destroyed fighter, they're clothes."

Not reacting in any way the man just raised his right hand and rattled the chain, with a face that totally said, how should I do that dipshit?

"Right, I'll ask the captain about that but for now do you have a name we can call you by?"

The man tilted his head, green eyes continued to bore into Kira's own, the man then spoke his voice fluid and melodic "Call me Vincenzo."

"I'm Kira Yamato, you should rest you just got out of surgery. I'll go let the captain know your up." With that the brown haired youth walked out. Vincenzo let out a sigh and grabbed the bag he was given, inside were three sets of clothing, the dress uniform for his alliance, and two sets of civvies. Pulling out his pants he proceeded to struggle with them, trying to put them on single handedly. Suddenly he felt something tear in his abdomen, looking down he saw a ragged hole where fresh stitches had torn and he could feel his gunshot wound had reopened. As if to confirm it blood started to flow out of the wound and onto the sheets of the bed.

"Shit..." He growled and tumbled out of bed, crashing to the floor.

As if she was listening the door shot open and the girl from before entered "OH NO! What do I do? What do I do?" She collapse to her knees and tore off her pink jacket, leaving her in a tank top. She pressed it against the open wound.

"G-get my g-gear bag now." Vincenzo choked out between ragged breaths. Miriallia nodded before once again bolting out of the room leaving Vincenzo to try and keep pressure on the wound. He focused on keeping his breathing normal and heart rate low to slow down the blood loss. It was three minutes before Miriallia returned a blond man right on her heals with a large duffel bag over his shoulder.

When the blond man saw Vincenzo he stopped for a moment "Oh fuck..." before putting the duffel bag on the ground and un zipping it. The injured mercenary crawled his way to the bag and rummaged through it, pushing guns and ammo out of his way and pulling out a tube the size of his forearm. Slamming his hand down on the top a large needle shot out of the bottom, causing the brunette to gasp while the blond just looked on in interest as he kept pressure on the injury. Taking a deep breath to steady himself he pushed the blondes hands of and moved the now blood soaked jacket before stabbing the two inch long needle in his thigh. A pressurized hiss emitted from the device as the green meter on the side emptied. When it was completely out he collapsed into unconsciousness.

Miriallia was the first to jump into action as she grabbed the jacket and move to put reapply pressure before the injured man below her bled out, but the Lieutenant grabbed her arm stopping her. "Look." She prepared herself to look at the gaping hole in his chest, but what she saw made he jaw drop in awe.

The wound was closing itself.

**=][=  
**

At the same time Captain Murrue Ramius was meeting the ships surgeon in her quarters. (_This line wont format correctly fogives me.)_

"Captain, here my report on our injured friend. I must say he is the most fascinating person I have ever treated." The doctor said while grinning.

She looked up from the medical report with a raised brow "How so Doctor?"

The doctors grin spread into a full blown smile "I had hoped you'd ask that. Well not only is he not a natural, he's not a coordinator either. He's completely different from either."

This caught her attention and she set the dossier down and focus completely on the doctor, folding here mandate in front of her mouth. "I'm listening."

If it was possible the doctors smile grew even larger. "Well, while he is augmented it not genetics. No the guy has... What's the right word... Cybernetics and chemicals in his body that boost everything, not just a few like coordinators are limited to, sight, hearing, muscle mass, bone density, perception, cognitive power even stamina. The kid has a neural implant on the back of his neck, it interfaces directly with his brain. It's truly amazing. And according to the DNA tests-"

"He's only 17." Murrue finished having reopened the dossier have way through the speech. "Hmm let me see." She powered up her console and opened the video feed of La Flagas helmet camera, she and the doctor watched the video as a red suit ZAFT pilot flew out of the doorway and get impaled and as the mercenary collapsed. "He obviously is skilled in combat to take down two coordinators. And look at the tech in this room I've seen nothing like it, and know of no country developing them. Where could he be from?"

"That's not my area of expertise but maybe it's an independent faction." The doctor suggested.

Tilting her head the doctor asked "You mean mercenary?" the doctor nodded. "Well thank you doctor, you have been most enlightening. Now-"

She was interrupted by the door sliding open, and a bloody Mu La Flaga standing in it. "Captain, Doctor, you have to come see this. You'll never believe it."

**=][=**

"How? I mean... Just how? This is impossible!" the doctors voice was hushed, his mind absolutely blown. In front of him a man who had come out of surgery just over an hour ago was completely healed, yet unconscious for an unknown reason.

"I don't even believe it, and I saw it happen." La Flaga said after taking a sip from a mug of military Grade-C coffee, it tasted like shit and had an unsettling quality but it kept you awake.

"What happened though? Exactly." Murrue asked.

"I was preparing this cup of crap when one of the kids ran by lugging the duffel bag we got of the unknowns ship before we slagged it. Obviously I was suspicious so I grabbed it, when she explained what happened I raced over to where he was. When I saw him he was a bloody mess and I mean that literally, it looked like he was close to bleeding out. I put the bag in front of him and he rifled through it just tossing guns, knives and other gadgets out of the way until he found this." At this point La Flaga held up the empty tube, needle out and covered in dry blood.

"So then he stabbed himself, that much is obvious from the puncture wound on his leg. That still doesn't explain this miraculous healing ability." Murrue sighed while sitting down. she started to rub he temples to ward of a threatening headache when an idea hit her. "Are there anymore of those tubes in the bag?"

La Flaga knelt down and searched the bag before looking up and answering. "Two, but-" the trend of interruptions continued as the ship started to shake violently and Badgiruels' voice sounded across the ship wide announcement system.

"All hand to level-1 battle stations! Repeat, All hands to level-1 battle stations!"

Murrue shot up "Damn it. They're making one last run before we link up with the 8th fleet." La Flaga was already making his way out the door and to the hanger as she finished, gritting her teeth she sprinted to the bridge.

**=][=**

_(There a short time skip right now, this next part starts about half way into the battle.)_

**=][=**

The ship shaking made him wake up, more specifically the shaking caused him to fall out of the bed which then woke him up.

_Ughh why is it every time I wake up the universe deems it fit to cause me pain._

Pushing himself off the floor he noticed he was in a different room, the same design but it wasn't covered in his blood and the lights were off. Looking around he saw the bag containing his clothes, deeming it wouldn't give the right impression if he walked around half naked he threw on a teeshirt and a vest that had his corporations logo on the right breast. Proceeding out of the room he managed to trip and land head first into the door.

_God dammit, the nanites are really fucking with my perception._

Looking down he saw the object that tripped him, and a grin graced his face fore the offending object was nothing less than a duffle bag full of his recently acquired equipment. He quickly opened it up and took stock of what he had at his disposal.

_Hmm there's no need to go armed for war, they did fix me up after all. But I'll be damned before I wander around an unknown ship unarmed!_

He settled for a scrambler pistol holstered on his right thigh and a pair of nova knives, similar in design to his Kurki just more generic. _Now to get to the bridge and find out who's ship I'm on._

He walked out and the halls were empty, a blessing for he could move quickly without being noticed, a fact he took full advantage of. He followed the convenient signs that gave directions to almost every major system for the ship. What idiots own this boat? First they leave me an possible hostile on their ship unsecured and in the same room as my gear then they give me and any possible borders directions that will take them right where they want to go.

As he came to the bridge door, which was unguarded by the way letting anyone enter if they wanted to, and pressed his ear against the thick metal letting his enhanced hearing pick up snippets of the conversations in the bridge.

"Calculate the Blitz's position form the shots angle." A stern female voice ordered before pausing and giving a fire order.

_Hmm so we're in battle that's what the shaking was._ He kept listening as more orders were given out when he decided to see if he could slip in. He entered just in time to see two ridiculously large beams of green energy lance through space in front of the bridge. Vincenzo watched as a large turret was lifted from the hull and fired it's own green salvo in return. Using his NeoCom he silently hacked his was into the ships sensor suites and reviewed the data when something caught his attention, upon closer review he figured out what it was.

The ships crew, for it was a crew not a capsuleer, hadn't noticed it and if they didn't soon they would die. He waited painfully as the seconds ticked by and nothing. He was left with no choice...

"ANGLE SHIP BOW 45 DEGREES DOWN! ROLL STARBOARD 23!" His shout caused a woman in a chair to jump and turn around while another female officer pulled a gun on him from below. But who ever the navigation officer was had been trained to follow order so much that he complied without hesitation. He was just in time as a black humanoid machine dropped cloak right in front of them and fired three white projectiles which glanced the side of the bridge before flying into space.

It went unnoticed by the two females as they faced Vincenzo down the tension was snapped when a call came from one of the other crew that the armour was overheating which caused the gun wielding woman to return to her station, but the on who he assumed was the captain didn't, instead she gave him an order. "Identify yourself!"

Years of mercenary service caused him to enter a 'lazy' stance of attention clasping his hands behind his back and standing tall, while tilting his head up ever so slightly. And Murrue would be a liar if she said he didn't cut a impressive figure. "Wing Commander Vincenzo Nicastri of the Zion TCD Corporation at your service Mam."

"Can you work a sensor station? You seemed to know what was going to happen pretty well and we could use all the help we can." she asked already going back to her seat as she had more urgent matters to deal with.

Replying in the affirmative he sat down at an empty console and found it remarkably familiar to the old scanner systems he had to deal with as a dropship pilot. Using his link between his implant and the sensor he was easily able to locate and send the location of the black machine to the gun crews. But even then the bastard managed to slip in and land a few shots against the hull. It was only stopped when a suit of similar design except sporting blue, red and white kneed the machine in the 'chin.' Once again a blue and orange suit, marked hostile by the computer, swooped in and tried to slash at the friendly machine only to be rejected as a large blade stabbed it in the mid section. Courtesy of their friend in red and blue. It was only then they started to withdraw.

Vincenzo sat back as the crew on the bridge celebrated. "The eighth fleet is here!" He hated to admit it but he missed this, working as a team, the comradery of it all, no matter how short. Flying with mundanes as a wing commander was a lonely job, they wouldn't talk to him, no immortals where to intimidating. Sure he could hand out with the capsuleers on station but even then he was second class. Letting himself revel in the moment he didn't notice the woman walk up behind him, what he did notice was the cold metal of a gun barrel press up against his neck. The tension in the room skyrocketed and the crew stopped what they where doing instantly.

"Stand up. Slowly. Arms above your head." the cold voice of the woman from earlier sounded behind him and he followed her instructions, not making any overt moves.

The brunette in the command chair started to rises and he tone was pleading "Ensign Badgiruel you don't want..."

"No Captain, this man is under direct conflict of military law. Not only that but he's obviously a mercenary! He could have been paid to capture this ship and the strike!" The woman now identified as Badgiruel rebuked.

Slowly turning around and straightening to his full height, an impressive 6'4", Vincenzo towered over the 5'8" woman. He tilted his head at the gun that was now pointed at his chest before speaking calmly. "You've made three mistakes, Number One: You disregarded your superiors orders, Number Two: You pointed a gun at me and number three you let me stand up." Before she could even process his word Natarle found herself lifted of the ground by her lapels and she started to struggle, that is until she felt something incredibly sharp against her throat.

"I wouldn't move if I were you." the smirk on Vincenzo's face was unsettling as it had no place on a man that had six guns pointed at him.

**=][=**

A/N: IM BACK BITCHES, Giving you your periodical dose of actions based fanfiction! I know it's been awhile but I make no excuses or apologies as my life doesn't revolve around writing fanfiction, rather it revolves around my new slightly nympomatic girlfriend. As such I have been busy. Now I hope you have enjoyed this chapter as it was pretty fun to write. But now I hope you guys review cause it gets sad when few of you do.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:Hey guys how you doing? Ya ya I don't really care x). Any way I got a few reviews that happen to be anons, now that's a shame as to respond I have to put it in the actual story! So that's what I'm doing:**

**To Mr. Guest, **  
**Eve online is an MMORPG focus around space combat and economy. It features massive (400k+) players on one server. Dust is the PS3 equivalent, connected to the Eve server it is a FPS that let's a different breed of gamers to enter the universe.**  
**As for the storyline, it'll stay the same somewhat but some changes are coming up real soon (IE right now).**

**Dear Mr. Parafist,**  
**Can you really, in good conscious, say that this archive is not polluted? While I thank you for pointing me in the direction of some good one, it does not mean it is right that anyone would have to dig through 2 or 3 pages just to find a decent story that actually revolves around the show.**

**=][=**

_Fighter pilots, above all else, know who among their peers are hunters and who are hunted. They absolutely will not fly into a tough combat situation with a wingman they don't trust and not all men make the cut. Where we work is a vicious place. I'll attempt to describe it, but the full comprehension comes only in a sky full of hot metal and smart missiles that all seem to be looking at you. You're in a machine that is so fast and powerful that you intuitively know that if death comes, it will be full of hot fire. Frail human that you are, you will be shredded to pieces. Worst of all, you'll be alone in a fierce place where your comrades cannot hold you while you die. That is the real environment of a fighter pilot._

**=][=**

"So how are we going to play this!" Vincenzo said mockingly, pressing his Nova knife against Badgiruel's neck just enough that a thin red line started to appear under the blade, a single drop sliding down her neck to stain the collar.

The brown haired captain spoke calmly trying to ignore the palpable tension in the room "Put her down. No one has to get hurt."

"No one was going to, but it seems your subordinate here doesn't trust me. So I'll refrase the question. Why shouldn't I slice her throat and take over the vessel?" He took a glance around the room and noticed how young some of the crew was, no older than 17 in some cases and among them the girl who tried to help him from earlier.

"Badgiruel was out of line. She acted without consent. I assume that you are Private Military, right?" At his slight nod she continued. "If you let her go, I can offer you a contract. Help protect my ship on our journey and your actions will be forgiven and compensated."

Natarle growled dangerously "Captain! You can't serio-" she was shut up as the blade eased itself into her neck ever so slightly.

"Uh uh uh, your captains negotiating for your life. I wouldnt interupt. A few conditions if you will. First what became of the ship I was on? More specifically the fighter in the hanger."

"We salvaged everything we could including the fighter. We scuttled the rest, I couldn't risk ZAFT getting ahold of it."

"Good, now everything that came off that ship is mine. I decide what to do with it and who can use it. Also my methods are not to be questioned. Just know I get the job done."

"Done." Murrue gave her answer with no hesitation "Go find luteniant La Flaga, he'll get you oriented." Vincenzo let go of Natarle and walked out without another word. As Badgiruel started to stand up Murrue spoke harshly. "I don't want to hear it Natarle, you caused this mess and I doubt you would have enjoyed the alternatives. Get out of my sight and go see the doctor."

**=][=**

After getting directions from a mechanic Vincenzo found himself in the mess hall, or one of them as it was way to small to support a ship of this size. In front of him a crowd of people who had no business being on a military vessel. They all were chatting amongst themselves sounding relieved as they watched a small screen display footage of a fleet of spacecraft, not as big as the fleets he would fight amongst, but it was a respectable size no the less.

He tapped a guy on the shoulder and the man looked at him. "Hey what's going on?"

The man gave him a strange look but decided to humor him "Where have you been kid? That's the eighth fleet, we can finally go back to ORB."

"Thanks." Vincenzo decided he may as well check the hangar, walking through hallways filled with civilians carrying packed bags. As he reached the hangar he saw a few familiar faces near a large fighter on the floor below him. The brown haired kid, Kira had his torso sticking out of a hatch on top of the orangish red craft and the blonde, who he assumed was La Flaga, was floating above him. Pushing of the wall he started to drift toward them and pick up some of they're conversation.

"-is it alright if we leave it as is? And what about that GINN?" Kira asked.

"Uh, huh. Good point, never really thought about that. But I'm not so sure we should return it to it's original state as that would reduce is performance." Mu replied just as the captain arrived.

"Well then let's hope we can find someone who can pilot it as is."

Spinning around Kira was the first to acknowledge her albeit clumsily. "Uh captain?"

"What's this? To what do we owe the honour?"

That was when Vincenzo arrived at the ship. "Well I guess two things now. This is Vincenzo Nicastri he's our new private contractor, I'd like you to show him around and take him to his equipment. As for you, Kira, I'd like to talk to you."

The two pushed off and made their way to the large machine from earlier, except in greyscale, leaving La Flaga and Vincenzo alone. "So a mercenary? Can't say I figured that with all that fancy tech of yours."

"You could say I'm not from around here. I gotta ask what are those things? They're huge." Vincenzo said while gesturing to the GINN with his head.

For the second time he received a strange look. "You really aren't from here are you. That's a Recon GINN, it's a mobile suit used by ZAFT. It's really just a show piece at the moment because we only have one coordinator on board to pilot it and the Strike is superior."

"I've never seen machines like this and I've been flying in space for years. And I've never heard of a coordinator either, are they important?" Vincenzo asked staring at the machine with a glint in his eye.

"What?! You don't know what a coordinator is? Where have you been? We're only fighting against an entire nation of them."

Vincenzo's head snapped to focus on Mu "Wait an entire nation? What planet are we over? Better yet what system are we in?"

"We're over Earth... Where else would we be? Are you sure your okay, you did only have surgery a few hours ago." Mu's voice started to gain a concerned edge as he moved closer to the stunned contractor.

As he got closer he started to hear the kid mumbling "Holy Terra... I'm back in Sol... There's a way back..."

He was about to ask what the hell was going on when the captain returned "I've just gotten word, Admiral Halberton is on his way over to see the ship. I want you all in your best uniforms when he arrives, that means you to Nicastri." and with that she pushed off, presumably to get her dress uniform.

Before Vincenzo could fly off La Flaga grabbed his arm and spoke in an uncharacteristic cold tone "Don't think this is over. I want an explanation after, otherwise we, are going to have a problem." Then he to left leaving the still shaken mercenary behind.

**=][=**

He couldn't shake the sudden feeling of nervousness as the grey box with engines, that La Flaga swore was a shuttle, started to set down in the hangar. He always got the feeling when he met a new employer and he should be used to it after the centuries, but it always, without fail, set him on edge.

He wore his dress uniform, a gift from one of his capsuleer friends, it cost well over a million ISK but damn was it worth every kredit. He wore black slacks and Slaver leather boots. He had a army green button up with two emblems of his Corporation framed on top of red backgrounds on the collar that rested around his neck, over that he had a black overcoat. On his left wrist and hand a silver vambrace and gauntlet which were highly stylized with engravings and even a slightly raised lion heads on the top of his knuckles and that held a nasty surprise of it's own.

Beside him was the captain and the regular enlisted of the bridge crew, their gleaming white uniforms contrasting with the stark black of his own. Behind them stood the volunteers and hanger crew all of which were dressed in a riot of colors and work gear. All of them stood at attention as a hatch on the side started to lower, revealing two men. The leading man seemed to radiate charisma as he glided over to the lead group.

Some people were just born to lead and Vincenzo could tell he was one as soon as he spoke "You know, when I first heard of the collapse of Heliopolis I was convinced that was the end. What a joy it is to see you people her."

"You do us a tremendous honour. It's a pleasure to see your again sir." Murrue said dropping here salute.

"I was a bit worried when informed you were engaged in a battle earlier. Is everyone alright?." he asked looking at the assembled groups.

In turn Natarle and La Flaga stepped forward and intoduced themselves, Mu's name seemed to catch his attention as the admiral jumped over in front of him just to the right of Vincenzo. "Ah we were fortunate indeed to have you with us."

"Well, I just wish I could have been of more service." said as he shook Halberton's hand,

"And who do we have over here?" the admiral asked.

Murrue answered quickly "This is Vincenzo Nicastri, a contractor who has agreed to help us find safe refuge. He and the students from Heliopolis have been helping with the operation of the ship."

"A private contractor, eh? I'll talk to you with the captain after." with that the Admiral pushed past Badguriel and stopped in front of the Heliopolis volunteers. "We've done some checking on the families of each one of you and everyone is safe."

The change was immediate, the group started chatting amongst each other relief evident in their voices. "We'd like to extend our gratitude for your assistance during this crisis and I'd like to add my thanks as well."

From behind him the greying man spoke softly "Um sir, we don't have much time."

"Right, I'd be delighted if we could have an opportunity to sit down together and have a talk." With that he floated of toward a door way and after getting a slight nudge by Mu the mercenary followed him.

They were led to the captains quarters and after a long debrief where the immortal learned quite a few things about the crew, like how the kid Kira was somehow augmented and Natarle was a cold hearted bitch, the admiral turned to face Vincenzo. "So what is the story with him, you didn't mention anything about him in the debriefing Captain. I would like to know why."

At this point it was La Flaga who spoke up. "Well sir. We were afraid you wouldn't believe us because we hardly believe it ourselves."

"Try me."

The captain gave a quick run down "We were scavenging for supplies in the debris belt when an anomaly occurred. Our sensor man picked up a signal of such a... a resonance that his eardrums didn't just pop but exploded damaging his ears to such a point that he will need implants to fix the damage on top of that what he claimed he heard screams of hundreds crying out at once. He's still in the infirmary with the symptoms of post traumatic stress. After we checked his well being we noticed something, a starship of unknown make appeared in front of us. It was heavily damaged and a pair of ZAFT pilots had just boarded it so I sent the Lieutenant and a group of marines to secure the ship before ZAFT could gain anything of use. Inside we found him and two dead coordinators. We scuttled the ship before moving on."

Natarle looked like she wanted to add something, probably about the incredible amount of tech they had recovered but she wisely reconsidered as the bandage around her throat started to itch.

The Captain that had come aboard with the admiral looked... let's just say skeptical. "Really? You expect us to believe stories of a magically appearing ship? Has the stress of running a ship gotten to you?"

The admiral shook his head in disbelief or disappointment it was impossible to tell "Come now I'm sure this young man can prove this story."

Vincenzo sighed, he had gone over this with the captain if there was one thing that would prove it it was his implant, he just didn't want to play that card so soon. No choice now I guess. Slowly he unbuttoned his green shirt and lowered the collar before turning around. By the twin gasps he heard he was fairly confident it was convincing. "It's a neural implant, what it does is my own business but I know you don't have the capability for this yet."

"But how-"

"It doesn't matter. What is past is unimportant, the problem is what we do now. The Archangel will be required to make it's decent to Alaska headquarters with it's existing roster of personnel."

The male captain explained "The replacement personnel were lost along with the advanced fleet, so you can see our problem. We no longer have additional crew to allocate to the archangel."

"Now because of the unfortunate incident with Heliopolis being destroyed it even more critical we get the Archangel and the G-Weapon with all it's data down to Alaska."

Murrue stepped forward. "Yes but sir how could we-"

"We must get the G-Weapons development back on track. ZAFT will no doubt continue to send new machines to the battlefield. It burns me, those pencil pushers who have been wasting precious resources on concessions simply see the number of soldiers lost as figures on paper."

"Very well sir. I'll be sure to deliver that spirit of yours when we reach Alaska."

La Flaga stepped up as well "As a surviving mobile armour pilot, that is one order I can not refuse."

"I appreciate that. You are dismissed."

**=][=**

Kira entered the mess hall to the sight of his friends arguing. Rather heatedly at that to. "Hey, what's going on guys?"

Kuzzy filled him in from where he was leaning on the wall. "Tolle and Flay are saying that mercenary on the bridge is a complete psychopath while Sai and Miri are saying that Badgiruel got what she deserved for being a bitch."

"Wait. Who? What happened?"

"That guy we picked up woke up during the battle and sneaked on to the bridge, good thing to because as soon as he got there he notices a mobile trying to disable the bridge. The guys takes over the sensors and helps us through the battle. As a reward Badgiruel decided to point a gun at his head. He must be a coordinator, and a good one at that, I've never seen someone move so fast not even you. I blinked and he had Badgiruel, a knife to her throat demanding a solution. Next thing you know the captain hired him."

"How is tha-"

Miri finally notice Kira standing there she interrupted Tolle mid sentence "Hey Kira! Did you get your discharge papers?"

Walking over and taking a seat he answers "Uh ya, right here."

"I can't wait to see my parents again. They've probably been worried sick." Tolle says leaning back not even noticing Flay flinch, but Sai did.

"Flay he didn't mean anyth-" the red head cut him off.

"I'm not signing the discharge papers." she announced. The effect was immediate as she was bombarded with questions. "Enough. I have no where to go and those monsters already took my daddy, I want to make sure they don't take anyone else's."

No one had a response for that.

**=][=**

Vin was excited, no ecstatic, no overjoyed at what had been recovered. He had an armoury all to himself, it was filled to the brim with gear, assault rifles, Smgs, pistols, swarm launchers, scout and a heavy suits, modules for said suits and even a prototype forge gun. But most importantly the CRU. That was worth more than anything else in this room, eight feet tall and three wide it was a smaller model but no less ineffective.

Transmitting music from his neocom to a nearby terminal he started to lay out his personal scout/pilot suit, repairing the bullet hole and installing a few module that outclassed his own, shield boosters and combat chems mainly. He picked out the more advanced Smg and pistol, fine tuning them to a point where they would reacted predictably every time he pulled the trigger.

Bobbing his head to the music he walked over to the terminal and started to remotely access the files in that mobile suit, the GINN. Scouting routes, technical stats, cockpit recordings and a mission briefing opened up in front of him, selecting the briefing he skimmed over it. A rescue mission for some celebrity, a moral boosting mission. _Sucks to be her, cute face though._ Going over the technical notes he stumbled across the manual, the how to guide. Using a program in his NeoCom he synthesized the data and set the program to assimilate the data over the next twenty minutes. It was a trick he and his squad had developed, usually immortals and capsuleers could learn skills by downloading pre made packets directly into their brain where they would assimilate it over time, but there was a way to do it with any electronic document. No where near as effective but it gave you a good base to work off of.

_I wonder if the nano repairers in my fighter would be compatible with a mobile suit. Nah that's just wishful thinking. If I could jury rig the remaining capacitors I could probably get a shield tank working._

Moving back to the suit he checked how the repairs were drying. "Yes?"

He smirked as he turned around and saw a shocked girl, the same from before. Recovering she said "Um, hi. I was just wondering if you were hungry so I brought you some food."

Looking down at the tray she held he looked up and flashed her a smile. "Thank you, you are a real life saver and I do mean that literally."

_A blush. Success!_

"I only did what needed to be done. Are you feeling any better?"

Sitting down at table he nodded, "Yes almost good as new. Can I ask you your name?"

"Huh? Oh I'm so sorry! I'm Miriallia Haw, newest member of the earth alliance forces."

Vincenzo looked up sharply. "How old are you?"

"16."

"Arn't you a civilian? What possessed you to throw your life into a war? You risk death after only a short life." he asks no trace of humor in his voice.

"What about you? Your no older than me! What kind of hypocrite are you?" shes angry now, thats to bad she needs to hear this.

Leaning forward he set one arm on his leg the other on the arm rest. "One who's seen the horrors of war, one who's ended lives before their time, one who's seen innocents torn apart just to demoralize the enemy. Don't call me a hypocrite when I'm trying to give you the entire picture. You'll experience death, death of your friends, your family. There may even be a time when you yourself will kill, through spite or necessity. War is hell, I just wanted you to know what you were getting into."

She collapses in a chair. "I-I didn't-"

"All hands to level 1 battle stations! I repeat all hands to level 1 battle stations!"

"Into the fires of war again. Run along, I need to prepare." and with that she was gone.

Vincenzo let out a large sigh as he started to dawn his combat suit, leaving the helmet under his arm he grabbed and Smg and holstered it on the magnetic clip on his thigh, two spare mags in the belt. He started to make his way toward the hanger. Just as he arrived he checked the assimilation progress.

_100% now to put this to the test._

He watched as the other mobile suit launched followed by the fighter before making his way over to the GINN.

"Hey kid! What do you think your doing!?" yelled a burly man as he floated over.

"What does it look like? I'm joining the fight."

"You can't! The IFF is still a ZAFT register! You'll be torn apart by our own guns."

"How long to change it? We need all the guns we can get."

His face set into a grim mask "Give me five minutes."

Letting the man work Vincenzo leapt up to the cockpit and started to inter himself with the machine. He sealed his helmet and began to power up the machine and go over the armament, a 120mm long barreled 5 round sniper rifle firing tungsten HEAT rounds and a 75mm 8 shot sidearm firing explosive rounds, a large combat blade that can be attached as a bayonet to the sidearm.

On the console in front of him the burly mechanics face appeared, "Your good to go kid. Walk up to the catapult and we'll launch you out at top speed."

Following the instructions he gets into position and the catapults capacitor charges prompting a green light to appear on screen with the word 'Launch' on it. "This is Vincenzo Nicastri, Launching." he tapped the button.

The first thing he noticed was the devastation. Of the forty ships that originally composed the fleet fifteen had already been disabled, either from destroyed bridges to complete annihilation. Three enemy ships pelted the fleet from a distance while twenty five mobile suits were engaging the fighters in and around the fleet. He saw the strike engaged with three other suits of similar make, he also noticed how it was barely holding against them. In an inferior suit he had no chance so he set himself with the task of thinning out the grunt suits.

Drifting over to the deck of an alliance cruiser he locked his machine into a large tear in the armour. Setting up his rifle he took aim and instantly noticed a wing of fighters being harassed by a trio of GINNs a kilometer away. Leading the target he pulled the trigger and the recoil rocked the machine enough to slam it against the bulk head. The round soared unaffected though and impacted in the middle of the chest, right where the pilot would sit. The super heated tungsten spike bisecting the machine and pilot.

A smirk of grim satisfaction appeared on his face as he fired again and again each shot disabling if not destroying a machine outright. Looking for a new target he noticed a green beam fly across space, following it back to its source he saw the strike being overwhelmed. Making up his mind he fired the last two rounds at the grey and blue suit both impacting the left knee of the suit, the rounds themselves did nothing but the concussive force was enough to shear the leg partly off. Opening up the comm system to the strike he said, "How you holding up kid?"

"Vincenzo?! What are you doing out here?" Kira asked With a grunt as he block a shot from the green and brown machine.

Dumping the spent magazine Vincenzo slammed a new one home before responding, "What does it look like Kid? I'm saving your ass. Just a suggestion, aim for the joints even if the armour holds the joints themselves are weak."

"Got it."

Deciding to allow himself a little entertainment Nicastri hacked his way into the comm network of the three machines.

"WHAT THE FUCK! WHERE DID THAT SHOT COME FROM!" A male voice howled into the mic. Hehe someone's angry.

"Calm down Yzak! Pull back, I'm launching to replace you."

"BULLSHIT ATHRUN! THIS GUY IS MINE A LOST LEG ISN'T STOPPING ME! NEITHER WILL YOU!"

"Yzak! Get back now! Your getting to close to the gravity well! You can't go through reentry if you were intact let alone disabled!" A new voice entered, male, sounds Minmitar.

This Yzak seemed to ignore him as he saw a shuttle headed toward earth, the GINNs HUD picked up the IDs of everyone on board, everyone a civillian. "Shit." Pushing off the bulk heads he set the suit to maximum velocity firing every round at the blue and grey suit. They crumpled against the armour leaving blackened craters, throwing it down he pulled out his pistol and combat blade and emptied that to.

"WHAT!? YOU DARE FIRE AT ME! TRYING TO LET YOUR FRIENDS ESCAPE? TOO LATE!"

And it was a green beam lanced it's way through the shuttle. The explosion sent both Kira and Vincenzo into shock but the mercenary recovered after only a moment boosting forward he tackled the machine forward farther into the gravity well, at the same time he stabbed the blade into the mechs neck. "Burn bitch." he growled through the com link.

As he released the machine and started to watch it fall the comm screen opened up in front of him, the girl Miriallia started to warn him, "Kira! Vincenzo! Your too close to the gravity well! We can't reach you in time you need to get out now or you won't survive reentry!"

Kira appear on the second screen. "It's no good I can't pull out, the Strike has a reentry protocol I'm going to have to use it."

As his machine started to shake Vincenzo spoke up. "Uh that's a negative for me to. I'm going to have to risk reentry as well."

"Yo- INN- rate- entr- DIE!"

The screens cut out as the sensors burned off from reentry. Keeping an eye on altitude a thought crossed his mind.

_Well this is where the fun begins._

**=][=**

Hi! I'm not dead, still alive and kicking! Been away for awhile 4 months now. Wow. Forshame me forshame. Anywho yes i am starting to get back into writing just lost the will to put pen to paper or in my case finger to keyboard. expect semi regular updates but dont be suprised if i drop off the radar again. also i apologize for any mistakes, im a bit rusty.

OH YA Dust 514 just entered open beta download it and add my Character CassaNova if you ever wanna play!


	5. Chapter 5

**Yep not much to say up here except I'm working on 4 stories simultaneously so ya...**

**=][=**

_I started shooting when I was much too far away. That was merely a trick of mine. I did not mean so much as to hit him as to frighten him, and I succeeded in catching him. He began flying curves and this enabled me to draw near._

**=][=  
**

200,000 feet.

The heat started to creep into the cockpit.

180,000 feet.

The shaking became so intense all noise was drowned out.

179,000 feet.

The armoured plating started to melt like wax.

175,000 feet.

The cockpit opened.

172,000 feet.

A figure jumped out into space.

The impact of the wind could be equated to being hit by a semi at 90km/h. It stole the breath from his lungs and sent him spinning out of control.

_Fuck! I got to get under control! The dampeners won't kick in and I'll go splat!_

Battling the wind was like taking on a rouge drone unarmed. It was almost impossible. Almost.

112,000 feet.

Looking down at the terrain he focused on the lights of a desert town. Angling his body his body he hit terminal velocity, breaking the sound barrier. It was a serene experience as he filtered out the sound of rushing wind. Falling at 942m/h while watching the curvature of the planet slowly disappear. It left him with a short few minutes to organize a plan.

The town should have a phone, with it I should've able to establish a link with the Archangel. If they decended as well they'll search the crash site, when they find no body they'll fan out from there.

20,000 feet.

He hit cloud level, moisture beading on his suit. What visibility he had was reduced to nothing.

18,000 feet.

Mid way through the cloud level he activated his suits inertia dampeners and a blue field resembling flickering fire engulfed him. The field while leaving his speed intact would dissipate the majority of any impact he would receive.

**=][=**

"Look at those! Two shooting stars!" A child yelled from his position on top of a sand dune. In the night sky a flaming red ball and a blue contrail fell from the sky.

"Those aren't shooting stars. We need to go find Sahib and get a party to investigate."

The duo stayed there long enough to determine the crash sites. The desert and the ZAFT controlled town of Bereg.

He landed on the roof of a building, smashing through it and the floor below it and throwing up a large cloud of dust. Coming up from his crouch he drew his SMG and scanned the room, locking on the family cowering in the corner. Tilting his head to the right he lowered his gun slightly.

"Boo."

That was enough to set them off as they ran screaming out onto the streets.

"Hehe oops."

Extending the folding stock he reshouldered the weapon and started to slink out of the building. Taking a quick scan of his surroundings he noticed the family he scared clutching onto a pair of soldiers saying something in a foreign language. "Well shit." Running down the street he could hear the soldiers running toward the house he busted through.

He made it down two streets and into a side alley when klaxons started to wail. "Well double shit."

He huddled behind a dumpster as a group ran past the alley way. Sneaking to the road he peaked his head out and saw it was clear. Deciding to take the chance he ran across the road and into a grand bazaar, the stalls stripped of their merchandise and covered up in cloth. He just about reached the end when a large dropship flew overhead and disgorged a dozen soldiers by rope onto the street ahead of them. He froze waiting for them to make a move.

It was forty seconds before all had rappeled to the ground.

Vincenzo didn't move.

He didn't blink.

He didn't even breath.

He let out the breath when they started to move away. He started walking when his foot caught a good sized rock which bounced across the ground. He cringed as one of the army men turned around pulling off a second man to enter the bazaar.

Damn it all to hell. Why didn't I put a silencer on the damn gun? Oh right no sound in fucking space! Damn you logic! I'll have to take out these two sods with blades.

With a sigh that only he could hear he let the smg hang from its strap and pulled out two nova knives. With a hum they came to life, a soft glow emanating from their blades. One of the soldiers went left down another isle while the original went down the isle Vin occupied.

It would prove to be the last mistake he ever made.

As he approached Vin lunged, using the reversed gripped knife to hook onto the mans neck, using the spine as a pillar he swung around and threw the second blade. This one pierced the mans trachea and he fell to the ground struggling to keep the blood inside his body. Ripping his knife out of the first man he let the nearly decapitated body join its comrade on the dusty ground. Arterial blood covered many of the near by stalls and stained the white of the immortals suit.

Collecting the other dagger he proceded to exit the bazaar and continue on his way trying to locate the fastest way out of the city. Or atleast to it outskirts.

_Hey Vin I got a great idea. Let's land in a city. We know nothing about it or who holds it but it's still a good idea. Imagine all the fun we will have. Fucking idiotic plan._

As he was berating himself he failed to notice the same squad of men doubling back to check where their buddies had disappeared to. He also failed to notice them raise their rifles in surprise. What he did notice though was the rounds that started to hiss around him. Combat stimulants kicking in his reaction time was boosted to such a degree that as soon as he heard the click of the trigger being pulled he was already jumping behind cover. He landed behind the burnt out car just as rounds started to hit the spot he used to occupy.

Bringing up his Smg he swung over the hood and fired a short ten round burst. The 'Toxin' ICD-9 is aptly named as it fires special rounds that upon impact explode into dozens of needle like shards that carry a crystalline poison that causes the persons sight to blur and their depth perception to skew. Of course all that doesn't really matter when six 4.6 rounds tear open fist sized exit wounds.

The man released a whimper, eyes wide in shock, his gun slipped from his hands and he crumple to the floor. He was dead before he landed.

"Shit! Man down! He killed Kenny! That bastard!"

Vincenzo's smirk returned as he slid over to the other side of the car. He waited for the gap in their fire that would signal them reloading and when it came he snapped out of cover. His aim was true as one of the soldiers took a full burst to the chest while a second took a stray round to the throat. As he started to move back into cover one of the soldiers got lucky and managed to hit the mercenary in the head. The 5.56 round crumpled against the shimmering blue hexagons that made up his shield.

Scrambling back and glancing at the bottom right of his HUD his shields read 85%.

"Mother fucker! Who is this guy! Tessa call for reinforcements."

Well can't let that happen now can we?

He primed a 'sleek' locus grenade, a high explosive fragmentation grenade with a sleeker profile which let it fly farther and more accurately at the cost of raw damage. He counted to three before passing it over to the female talking into the radio. It went off before she even realized what it was. Chunks of meat and liters of blood splattered her teammates and the surroundings. Needless to say they started to run away.

_I guess being hit by your friends meat chunks is a traumatic experience. I wonder where there going. We just started to play._

Before Nicastri got the chance to gun them down a tank turned the corner, judging by the speed and monuverability at which it took the corner and the rate of fire from its auto cannon it was probably a light tank.

"Fuck!"

Fumbling with his sole anti vehicle grenade he made a bad toss, hitting the machine on the track immobilizing it but still letting it rip apart the street with its cannon. He ducked behind the car and felt the cannon rounds strike home, tearing apart his cover. Vin knew that in a few moments his cover would be gone and he would die.

That's when he noticed it.

The tremors.

Every few seconds the pebbles on the ground would jump slightly.

He heard it next.

Over the cannon fire the sound of hydraulics.

He witnessed it last.

Two machines, bipedal they stood ten meters tall, rushed down the street. Their two main cannons opened fire and the shell impacted the tank, ripping it apart like tinfoil. As they charged down the rest of the street the top hatch of the ruined tank popped open and a man swiveled the 50 toward the two mechs. Opening fire a line of sparkles stitched its way over the cockpit of the first machine causing it to stumble and stay down. The second mech gave its response immediately in the form of 4 rockets fired from the torso. The ball of fire that was created was intense, the heat caused Vins shields to ripple.

The flames illuminated the side of the machine just long enough to catch a glimpse of the writing on the side: 'RVN-3L' It slowed down and turned its torso to face the armour clad mercenary behind it a group of about a dozen locals brandishing weapons started to race toward him on foot. So he did the first thing that came to him.

He waved.

They stopped and just starred.

"What? Was it something I did?" he yelled over to the group. Looking around he took in his surroundings, three dead soldiers covered in blood and meat chunks. Oh plus a white armoured killed splattered in blood. Ya that probably would do it. "So? Are you gunna shoot me?"

One of the locals stepped forward, a boy and he looked pretty shaken. "Did you fall from the sky? In the blue comet?"

Looking up and pointing at the stars "That sky? Ya I guess I did."

"Then you must come with us, the desert lion wishes to speak with you."

"Can I drive that?"

Turning back to the machine who's cockpit was shot up he nodded his head.

**=][=**

**And there ya have it. I'm going to be cycle through three stories so be patient.**


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